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ESA plans mission to smallest asteroid ever visited

ESA’s planet-defending Hera mission will set a new record in space. The asteroid investigator will not only be the first spacecraft to explore a binary asteroid system – the Didymos pair – but the smaller of these two worldlets, comparable in size to Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza, will become the smallest asteroid ever visited.

Earth’s atmosphere stretches out to the Moon – and beyond

A recent discovery based on observations by the ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory, SOHO, shows that the gaseous layer that wraps around Earth reaches up to 630 000 km away, or 50 times the diameter of our planet

Hubble helps uncover origin of Neptune’s smallest moon Hippocamp

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, along with older data from the Voyager 2 probe, have revealed more about the origin of Neptune’s smallest moon. The moon, which was discovered in 2013 and has now received the official name Hippocamp, is believed to be a fragment of its larger neighbour Proteus.

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ISS: NASA 8K-Video

NASA’s 1st 8K Video from Space Is Just Awesome

High-definition video has a new home: the International Space Station. A new video from NASA shows the astronauts working on their experiments, recorded in 8K imagery so clear that it makes it feel like you’re floating right alongside them. „Microgravity unlocks new worlds of discovery,“ reads text in the video, which was a joint project of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). „The science being conducted aboard the International Space Station is answering questions that hold the keys to our future in space and on Earth.“

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe Just Made Its First Close Pass by the Sun!

One of humanity’s newest spacecraft faced a harrowing test late Monday night (Nov. 5), darting just 15 million miles (24 million kilometers) of the surface of our sun.

That spacecraft is NASA’s Parker Solar Probe, which launched in August with a daring mission to study the star that shapes our lives. To do so, it is flying a course of 24 close loops around the sun, the first of which reached what scientists call perihelion — the moment of closest approach — Monday at 10:28 p.m. EST (0328 GMT Nov. 6).

Tiny German Spacecraft Poised for Hopping Landing on Asteroid Ryugu

A tiny German asteroid lander is expected to touch down on its target late Tuesday, Oct. 2 (EDT). The craft is on a quest to send back data about the mysterious Ryugu’s surface, whose precise composition continues to elude investigators more than three months after the Japanese Hayabusa2, which will deliver MASCOT to the surface, arrived at the space rock.

Japanese Probe Drops Hopping, Shoebox-Sized Lander on Asteroid Ryugu

ESA & Japan: BepiColombo Mission to Mercury / Merkur

ESA Science & Technology: BepiColombo’s journey to Mercury

This animation is based on a launch date of 5 October, marking the start of the launch window in October 2018. It illustrates the gravity assist flybys that the spacecraft will make at Earth, Venus and Mercury before arriving at Mercury in December 2025.

ESA Science & Technology: Mission Operations – Getting to Mercury

The Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO) is ESA’s scientific contribution to the mission. The Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), is providing the other science spacecraft, the Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO). ESA is also building the Mercury Transfer Module (MTM), which will carry the two orbiters to their destination, and the MMO Sunshield and Interface Structure (MOSIF), which provides thermal protection and the mechanical and electrical interfaces for the MMO.

JAXA | „BepiColombo“ Launch Schedule Change

Though Ariane 5 launch with BepiColombo mission explorers aboard was originally scheduled for 10:45 p.m., October 18, (local time in French Guinea) 2018, due to schedule adjustments the launch has moved later as follows:

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Europe has launched the seventh of its Sentinel Earth observation satellites as part of its multi-billion-euro Copernicus program to help predict weather phenomena such as El Nino and track the progress of global warming.

Making what is likely its last commercial launch, Russia’s Rokot rocket will give the European Sentinel-3b satellite a ride to orbit Wednesday. Liftoff, from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwest Russia, is scheduled for 20:57 Moscow Time (17:57 UTC). Wednesday’s launch will deploy…

Tweet With Sentinel-3B sitting and waiting patiently for liftoff and the launch dress rehearsal done, most of us had a day off yesterday – and now we are all rested and ready for tonight’s launch! Monday’s dress rehearsal involved teams here in Plesetsk, the satellite operations team at…

Europe’s Copernicus satellite fleet is gearing up for the arrival of its next addition on Wednesday with a Russian Rockot booster set to blast off from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 17:57 UTC carrying the Sentinel-3B multi-function satellite. Pending successful delivery into orbit, the…

Tweet With the satellite being rolled out to the launch pad and positioned in the launch tower, it’s been a very exciting weekend. Last Friday, with the Rockot upper composite all finished, it was moved from the 101B cleanroom to the General Hall ready for rollout on Saturday. The Khrunichev…

A multitude of discoveries are on the horizon after this much awaited release, which is based on 22 months of charting the sky. The new data includes positions, distance indicators and motions of more than one billion stars, along with high-precision measurements of asteroids within our Solar…

On 25 April 2018, ESA’s Gaia mission will publish its much awaited second data release, including high-precision measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars in our Galaxy.Scientists who have been working on creating and validating the data contained in the catalogue tell us why they are wait…

On Monday, April 16, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. NASA’s new exoplanet hunter will train its sights on nearer, brighter stars than its predecessors did.

The launch of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which was scheduled to take place this evening (April 16), has been delayed by at least 48 hours due to an issue with the spacecraft’s rocket ride, a SpaceX Falcon 9.

NASA’s pursuit of Earth 2.0 will have to wait at least another two days for a critical search asset to head into orbit as the launch of the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was delayed from Monday to provide time for additional Guidance, Navigation &…

Getting a satellite ready to be launched involves a long list of jobs, but with the Copernicus Sentinel-3B satellite now fuelled, this particular ‘to do’ list is significantly shorter. And, importantly, all is on track for liftoff on 25 April.

NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) — pronounced „laddie,“ not „lady“ — is set to launch to the moon in September 2013. The 844-pound (383 kilograms) spacecraft is designed to orbit the moon, investigating lunar dust, the lunar a

„A super secretive US government satellite SpaceX launched in January never made it to orbit after it failed to separate from the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket. Three months later, it still appears the satellite manufacturer Northrop Grumman may be to blame for the loss and not SpaceX. A new…

On 18 February, errors of two electrical units on the service module of Gaia led the spacecraft to trigger an automatic safe mode. Safe modes occur when certain spacecraft parameters fall out of their normal operating ranges and the spacecraft automatically takes measures to preserve its safety….

For the first time, the Moon’s far side will be on the receiving end of a robotic lunar lander – China’s Chang’e-4. Zhao Xiaojin, secretary of the CPC (Communist Party of China) committee at the China Aerospace Science and Technology (CAST), explains that the two-phase Chang’e-4 mission…

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On 6 March 2018, the BepiColombo engineering model was delivered to ESA’s mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany.BepiColombo – ESA’s first mission to Mercury – is based on two spacecraft: the ESA-led Mercury Planetary Orbiter, with 11 experiments and instruments, and the Japanese sp…

The BepiColombo mission to Mercury passed a review milestone last week, confirming that it can leave Europe and begin preparations for launch at the Kourou spaceport.The spacecraft and ground equipment, along with personnel, will start transferring to Kourou towards the end of next month.…

„The only problem is, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) had dismissed Swarm’s application for its experimental satellites a month earlier, on safety grounds. The FCC is responsible for regulating commercial satellites, including minimizing the chance of accidents in space. It feared that…

Engineers removed the combined optics and science instruments of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope from their shipping container in a high bay at Northrop Grumman on March 8, signaling the next step in the observatory’s integration and testing.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) declared Friday that it would start to make preparations for a new flagship X-ray space observatory for the research of black holes, neutron stars and quark stars.

​China’s latest lunar probe, the Chang’e-4, is expected to land on the far side of the Moon on the second half this year in what is to be the first soft landing on the dark side of the moon in the history of space flight.

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A veteran Cosmonaut and two NASA Astronauts parachuted into the sunrise on Wednesday aboard their Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft after a half-year mission to the International Space Station, touching down on the snow-covered steppe of Kazakhstan after circling the Earth 2,688 times and covering 114.5…

Expedition 54 Commander Alexander Misurkin handed over control of the orbital laboratory today to fellow cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov during a traditional Change of Command ceremony. Misurkin is returning to Earth tomorrow with NASA astronauts Joe Acaba and Mark Vande Hei after 168 days in space.

At 2:58 p.m. EST, the hatch closed between the Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft and the International Space Station in preparation for undocking. Expedition 54 crewmates Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba of NASA and Commander Alexander Misurkin of Roscosmos are scheduled to undock their Soyuz at 6:08 p.m. NASA…

Three members of the Expedition 54 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS), including NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei and Joe Acaba, have returned to Earth after months of performing research and spacewalks in low-Earth orbit.

The Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft with a Russian-American crew trio on board parachuted to a safe rocket-cushioned landing on the snow-covered steppe of Kazakhstan on February 28, 2018 after a 114.5-million-Kilometer mission circling the Earth 2,688 times over 168 days. Returning aboard Soyuz MS-06 was…

The Soyuz MS-06 spacecraft with a Russian-American crew trio on board parachuted to a safe rocket-cushioned landing on the snow-covered steppe of Kazakhstan on February 28, 2018 after a 114.5-million-Kilometer mission circling the Earth 2,688 times over 168 days. Returning aboard Soyuz MS-06 was…

The Ariane 5 rocket that deviated from its expected flight path Jan. 25 and lost contact with ground control was fed the wrong coordinates, according to the independent commission Arianespace tasked last month to find out what caused the close call.

SpaceX launched two experimental satellites today (Feb. 22) designed to help lay the foundation for Starlink, a network that will consist of thousands of spacecraft providing broadband internet service to people around the world.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a pre-flown first stage successfully delivered to orbit today (Feb. 22) the first two prototypes for the company’s huge satellite-internet constellation, along with a Spanish Earth-observing spacecraft.

The net-equipped boat came up a bit short in its quest to pluck a falling payload fairing — the protective nose cone that surrounds satellites during launch — out of the sky today (Feb. 22), SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket provided a spectacular show to morning commuters across Southern California on Thursday after taking off from Vandenberg Air Force Base with Spain’s PAZ radar satellite and a pair of SpaceX prototype broadband satellites. Falcon 9 streaked into the morning sun as it…

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Spanish Paz radar imaging satellite into orbit on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2018, along with two prototype internet service satellites. See amazing photos of the mission in this slideshow.